Aaron Bentz
Cyrilla Watson
Wendi Coleman
Feliza Strunk
Generations of Captivity
Spanning over three hundred years, slavery in North America can be separated
into specific time periods, characterized by the interaction between slaves and
slaveholders. In Generations of Captivity Ira Berlin approaches slavery by uniquely
dividing it into what he calls "generations". Within these generations, Ira Berlin
discusses aspects of slave culture that have previously received little attention.
The first of the four slavery generations Berlin describes is the Charter
Generations. Many Africans in this particular generation arrived in the new world as
slaves, but also as sailors and indentured servants. Berlin goes into great detail about how
slaves could purchase their freedom, but many of their children would only have
half-freedom.
Berlin’s focus in the “Charter Generations” section was to convey the obstacles
many African’s faced after entering the New World. Many Atlantic creoles were shipped
to different parts of the world to work on sugar plantations. Berlin goes into great detail
about how the majority of slaves, in order to purchase their freedom, were required to
convert to some form of Christianity.
Berlin does a good job at effectively describing the struggles many African slaves
faced in order to get their freedom and the freedom of their children. Berlin doesn’t
always focus on the struggles many Africans faced, but what differed this generation
from the stereotypical slave. He wrote “… later generations of transplanted Africans
would be linguistically isolated and de-skilled by the process of enslavement, Atlantic
creoles found themselves very much at home in their new environment” (pg. 32).
The second group, the Plantation Generations are characterized by large amounts
of slaves working on plantations where their only significant contribution was the free
labor. Ira Berlin does a great job detailing the way the transformation from a society with
slaves changed into a slave society in the different regions of the New World. Berlin
details effectively the way that the central colonies had a rapid change due to the different
export crops while the northern and southern colonies transformed into the plantation
generation slowly in comparison. One aspect of the slave society Berlin addresses is the
degree of authority slaves had over other slaves. A slave was commonly put in charge of
the plantation and left to run the plantation on his own, having the freedom to split work
how he deems necessary (something not commonly written about in books on slavery).
The way the Berlin addressed that part of the slaves’ lives shows the reader how the
slaves had more freedom to do as they pleased, but still had to work a majority of the day
to please the demands of the planter, even though he was not necessarily on the
plantation. Another part of the slave society that Berlin addressed was where the slaves
were from and the significance of their origins. Berlin did a great job in analyzing how
the need for strictly labor eliminated the need for effective communication.
Berlin revealed the relationship to slaves and ideas of freedom and universal
equality in discussing the Revolutionary Generation. Using the separate regions, Berlin
discussed the affects that the Revolutionary War, revolution in Haiti, evangelical
movements, and the French Declaration of the Rights of Man had upon the slave
populations and the surrounding society. An effective tool, this allowed the audience to
comprehend the differences amongst the regions. Using statistics Berlin made it easy for
the reader to understand exactly what occurred during the revolutionary generations.
Drawing the reader into this complex story, Berlin uses social history to allow the reader
to understand more than just the statistics. The north region, characterized by the demise
of slavery, found difficulty in receiving the equality they saw as their right. These men
and women started institutions and “demanded complete equality, attacking limitation on
their right to sit on juries, testify in court, and vote” (pg 110). The Chesapeake area saw a
growth in slave autonomy and skill with the cultivation of cotton where many achieved
manumission. Much like the Chesapeake, area after the war in the lower south, slave
owners failed to return slaves to their previous condition. Fear amongst planters grew in
the revolutionary Mississippi Valley. However, the growth of the plantation atmosphere
in this area caused harsher treatments, less autonomy, and fewer freedoms making way
for the migration generation.
The Migration Generation was marked by the both independent travel of freed
slaves, and the forced migration of those still enslaved. Realizing slavery would
eventually come to an end, slaveholders tried to extend it as long as possible.
Plantations continued to buy slaves from the seaboard as they tried to squeeze every bit
of profit out of the slaves as possible, often tearing slave families apart. While white
Americans (and some slaves) had gained their freedom during the American revolution,
slavery was still very much in practice. Some free slaves even continued the “peculiar
institution” by owning slaves themselves.
In his description of the Migration Generation, Berlin is able to show how the
slave culture changed drastically after the rise of the Middle Passage. Often using slaves
own words, Berlin shows how resilient they were to these changes. For example, as
slaveholders tore immediate families apart, slaves replaced them with kinship ties. In a
similar manner, slaves adopted Christianity when their native religions were attacked.
Practicing Christianity gave the slaves hope for a reward not on this earth, but in heaven.
These institutions were only two aspects of a much larger culture that developed as a
result of the interaction between slaves and slaveholders during the Migration
Generation.
From Berlin’s division of slavery into generations, the reader learns that slavery
in North America was not uniform. Drawing distinctions between the slave societies
that arose under different time periods and in different regions, Berlin is able to examine
the unique aspects (e.g. family, religion, daily life) of the slave culture that he feels have
not received enough attention.